the pen is mightier than the sword

it's been 7 months since graduating from the art institute and while i miss school on a social level i certainly do not miss the deadlines and STRESS.

i know i have a tendency to complain but i really do appreciate my school much more now than i ever did while i was there but i regret not being offered certain classes. classes such as letterpress and calligraphy.

i am in LOVE with betsy dunlap's freestyle calligraphy and i love it so much that i went out to jo-ann's to buy a calligraphy pen and ink set (with a 40% off coupon, of course). i closed the door to my room and went straightaway to work; writing letter forms, dipping the nib into the ink, dripping ink all over my desk, writing again, scratching my head, googling correct ways to write calligraphy...it was glorious.

i went through about 3 sheets of tabloid sized paper and just as i was kind of getting the hang of things my nib broke. *damn it* i shot a look at the clock and it was about an hour before jo-ann closed. i grabbed my other coupon and drove all the way to irvine to pick up another pen set--yess!

i practiced writing the names of people as they popped into my thoughts and i practiced for my boss's name for her wedding card and other future potential applications.

trying to teach yourself something you have no idea about can be: 1. frustrating, because you get things wrong and feel a bit lost 2. really rewarding, because every skill or technique you discover is a milestone even if you're the only one who cares.

i've been wanting to learn calligraphy for years now but i never have until now. in my life i've found it's really difficult to muster the inner gumption to do things at times.
...even good things:
clean my room, wash my car, exercise, teach myself something i genuinely want to learn, say 'sorry' and admit fault, do the right thing.

but maybe being mature means you begin to. i mean, if someone at work behaved like a child and thought like a child, i might think 'geez, you are acting like a BABY.' maybe not the nicest thing to think but true. doesn't really matter how old you are, your behavior shows the truth.

imagine an adult eating baby food everyday in the break room and when they're asked why they respond, 'well it's what i grew up eating.' to which i might say, 'yeah dude, when you were 1, now your 30. maybe it's time to move onto solid food.'

maybe it's time for me to grow up and try something new, do something about the things i say i want to see in my life, be more mature.

soft spoken

i work at a scrapbooking company called, me & my BIG ideas. it's a pretty kick-ass place to work. our 'flagship' is our soft spoken line of dimensional stickers. you can find them in your local michael's or jo-ann store in the scrapbooking area.

anyway, a couple months ago a soft spoken i had designed for michael's got chosen to be sold in their store! go buy it people, ask for it by name. hahaha just kidding.

000 0000 & 000 0001

01001000 01000001 01001110 01001110 01000001 01001000

that's my name in binary code, HANNAH. zeros and ones...it's how your bank account is broken down when you transfer funds, make withdrawals, buy something. it's your social security, or what's left of it, as you earn every year your work. it's your online life, as you email, blog, facebook, the whole gamut.

binary isn't written by humans but it's written by a very expensive calculator we call a computer.

so, what some people might consider to be "my life" can be translated into zeros and ones. how much i earn, how much i'm able to spend, who the government says i am, what type of online persona i project, can all be boiled down to zeros and ones. does that seem right to you?

a really wise teacher once wrote, So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

take a look at your car, your clothes, your house, your job, your health. one day all those things will fall by the wayside, and what will you be left with? 000 0000 & 000 0001? GOD, i hope not. what the hell kind of life is that?

i don't want the sum of my life to be about what can be crunched by some computer into binary code but i want my life to be about the intangibles. good things like, grace...love...hospitality...truth...justice...things you can't see but you definitely know are real. maybe more real than a lot of the things we spend so much freaking time doing or trying to achieve.

but what about you?

meat & tomatoes

ok, what is the deal with grocery store ground beef? it's freaking expensive. don't buy it. my co-workers tell me costco is the way to go for this one, better quality and dollar:pound. anyway, $14 later on the meat (i know!) meatloaf was on the way.

this is the third time i've made meatloaf and it's quickly become a hannah-fav. easy, tasty, and crowd-pleasing. i like to make mine mini so every meatloaf gets a big slather of tomatoey topping. i've altered a michael chiarello recipe for italian meatloaf from foodnetwork.com and while he sometimes comes across as pretentious but his stuff is pretty damn good.

my meatloaf is loaded with veggies which brings on big flavor and moisture. i hate dry meatloaf. it's such huge disappointment when it's dry.

everyone says one of the tricks to good meatloaf is not to over mix. and another thing everyone says is you have to mix it by hand, i completely agree. so one of my alterations was to use rice chex in lieu of breadcrumbs. rice chex is gluten-free and i have a family member who has celiac disease so that was a big idea for the recipe.

mini meatloaves are also great for freezing and re-heating later. my brother commented that he liked how they look like little footballs. haha, that reminds me of ace ventura.


tomatos or tomatoes? ask dan quayle.


my parents are avid gardeners and we've heaps of tomatoes this summer. so what better thing than to make some roasted tomato soup?

i altered a recipe i found by tyler florence on foodnetwork.com (i JUST killed a spider! eww). i stuck the tomatoes, onions, and garlic in the oven to roast while i ran to the market (yes there were others home in case of a fire, geez) and when i returned i swear to you i could smell the wondrous aroma of it all as i drove up the driveway. swoon!

it was really good even on a hot summer day. my only regret was that we didn't have bread and cheese otherwise i would've had some grilled cheese with it...perfect combo, right?! alas it was solo...

mix and matchy

so the hardest thing about being late in the game with this whole blogging business is finding a name. no, scratch that, it's finding at name that is AVAILABLE. after many failed attempts at finding a name that was not taken i went to another blog and began to read comments. someone wrote, "i love how it's mix and matchy." "eh" i thought, "that could work."

and i think it does because a lot of what i want to blog about is what i like to tell mark, "oh you know, this and that." a little bit of creative exploration post-graduation and a little bit of personal meditation. because what is art if it's not shared? a whole heap of rubbish. it's like when someone said, "don't hide your light under a basket, let it shine for others to see it" ... and because it'll burn the damn basket! (that last bit was me)

the mill is running

so if you haven't heard, mark started a blog. matchyandmix.blogspot.com check it out